Last Christmas, my mother gave my husband and me a jar filled with coins and a few $1 and $5 bills. She also gave one to my brother and his wife. With the jars came a copy of this book for each of us, Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright. I thought it was an incredibly neat idea, and was very moved by the gift even before I knew the full meaning behind it. I had intended to read the book shortly after receiving it, but amidst the post-holiday travel and breakneck speed of our life at the time, I just never got around to it that winter.

Fast forward to this holiday season: Joe and I put a charitable spin on our gift-exchanging this year, and my mom commented that it reminded her a bit of Christmas Jars. This evening I turned on the Christmas tree lights one last time and finally read this novella.

This is a quick read at just over 100 pages, a feel-good book for a feel-good season. Hope, an aspiring newspaper writer, receives an anonymous gift one miserable Christmas Eve: a glass jar full of coins and $20 bills with the words “Christmas Jar” written on it. She tries to track down the origins of this generous, bizarre tradition, but very few recipients of jars from years past are willing to speculate much on them except to say that some things don’t need to be understood to be appreciated. She eventually gets a lead on a family in town who restores old furniture and slowly unravels the mystery. After spending many months with the quirky Maxwell family, she faces a conflict: write the story and gain the glory, or keep the trust they have all come to place in her. Though Hope is not sure how to resolve her feelings, she knows deep down that the choices she makes leading up to that year’s Christmas will define the depth of her character.